Do you remember where you were on September 7, 2017 at 4:45 p.m.? Probably not, but Google does. At least, yes if you have Google Maps timeline enabled, which, like Sting, monitors every move you make. Best of all, you can come back later to find out where you were.
The Google Maps timeline lets you view all the cities you have visitedremember your trips and see all kinds of statistics about your trips from the moment you activated it.
Access your timeline
It all starts in Your timeline, the menu you will find after tapping on your Google Maps profile picture. This is where you will find all the information about your movements that Google knows from the moment you activated it. Indeed, if you have not activated the timeline, you can do so from this same menu.
For now, the timeline of Google Maps is saved on Google servers, although it will soon become private, as Google announced last year. As you would expect, Google collects your timeline data from the moment it is active. So the more years you have used them, the more years of data you will need to look at.
Memories of your travels
My favorite timeline option is to check which cities I’ve visited recently, for which we have multiple summary tabs in the Timeline section of Google Maps.
For example, in the Travel tab You see all your trips, how many days you have traveled and markers on the map for all the world cities you have visited.
Tabs are even more precise World, cities and siteswhich respectively show the specific countries, cities and places you visited during the entire time your timeline was active.
All information is combined, so that by tapping on a country you will see the cities and while playing in a city you will see the specific locations. This list of places can be filtered by type (shopping, culture, dining, places of interest and more).
For the most curious there is the Statistics tabwhich shows you data such as the number of kilometers you have driven, the time you spent driving or shopping, month by month.
Where were you at a day and an hour
What if you wanted to take a closer look at where you were on a specific day? The way to travel to the past in Google Maps is in the Day tab, touch the date
The date picker will show you highlighted in blue every day that Google has data for and in doing so you will see the exact timeline of where you were at each moment of the day. At least, while you were carrying your cell phone.
The best of all is that photos from Google Photos included that you took at the time, which helps you get a better idea of what you were doing at the time. The data is displayed both as a timeline and as a route on the map, making it very easy and convenient to view.
Having Google keep track of everything you’ve done for years is something that will make more than one nervousalthough being able to review it yourself later can also be very useful on many occasions.
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